A Free, Five-Day Immersive Experience for First-Generation Otis Students
August 13–17, 2025
The FirstGen First Flight Summer Bridge Program at Otis College is designed to foster community among incoming undergraduate students who are the first in their families to pursue a college degree. The program provides holistic support for personal growth, identity formation, cultural development, and career development, creating a stronger sense of belonging within the Otis College community.
Participants Will:
- Explore ways to practice a healthy work/life balance while learning about campus resources designed to help them in this pursuit
- Understand options for paying for college, budgeting skills, and ways to create a healthy long-term financial plan
- Gain confidence and employ skills for self-advocacy to support their academic and career readiness
- Develop a support network that includes peers and mentors at Otis
- Identify strengths from their community and family of origin and ways to draw on them to succeed as a first-generation college student.
Program Details
All incoming new, undergraduate students who represent the first generation in their family to attend a four-year college or university regardless of background, race, ethnicity, or other protected identities are eligible for this program. If your parent(s) attended some college but did not earn a degree, you are also eligible to participate. This program will offer opportunities for students to self-explore and build connections around their shared experience as first-generation students. The program is not open to MFA students.
To be eligible, all participants must be fully enrolled for the fall semester at Otis College, have paid their fall tuition and/or be officially enrolled in a payment plan no later than August 1, 2025.
The program will be hosted on campus at Otis College of Art and Design. As an immersive program, we recommend that students stay in the on campus Residence Hall over the course of five days before Orientation Week. If you have already secured housing in the Residence Hall for the school year, we will do our best to place you in your academic year assignment. If you will be commuting during the school year, you can still live on campus for the five-day program free of charge. The program will include some off-campus visits to areas of interest around Los Angeles. All transportation is included.
Program Dates:
- August 13–17, 2025
Sample Schedule:
- August 13: Check-in and Opening; Parent/Family Welcome Session; Meet your peers
- August 14: Sessions: Career Readiness; Financial Literacy; FirstGen Faculty and Student Peer Connections
- August 15: Collaboration with DREAMHAUS Creative Activity; Cooking and College Wellness; Additional Sessions on Financial Literacy, Networking, Career Readiness
- August 16: Studio Time (being a pre-professional Creative – managing a schedule); Reflections on Resilience of the FirstGen Identity in College and Beyond; Financial Literacy
- August 17: Closing: Reflection and Visioning for your Success, Move Out
This program is completely free of charge and includes housing, three meals a day, and snacks. All interested students must register for the program by July 28, 2025. Space is limited and available on a first come, first-served basis.
Is there a virtual option?
All participants in the FirstGen First Flight Summer Bridge Program are required to participate in person each day for the duration of the program. This includes living in the Residence Hall. Program sessions will build upon one another and provide a comprehensive experience designed to help students build community and network with one another, professional mentors, and faculty.
The program will also offer social programming in the evenings and during supervised off-campus trips for students to build relationships in a more casual way while establishing a sense of belonging within the Otis community. Accommodations will also be provided for any student who requires them. For additional information, please email ds@otis.edu to inquire about specific needs.
